Downtown businesses attempting to cover the gaps

The Iowa couple, who struggle with several mental health issues, say they became stranded in San Diego last year when their backpack was stolen. It contained all their money, identification cards and bus tickets home.

Without medical care and no place to live, they became regulars in San Diego emergency rooms and jails.

Their story is not unusual.

Since 2008, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness shows a year-over-year increase in homelessness of no less than 5 percent. The organization’s most recent count estimates 9,800 homeless live in the San Diego region.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, more than one-fifth of homeless Americans live in the streets, parks and shelters of California with the 2011 statewide total estimated at 135,928.

Across the state, shelter beds cover only a fraction of the dispossessed and hundreds are turned away daily, according to the alliance.

The Downtown San Diego Partnership works with many concerned parties, from government and nonprofit organizations to our own membership, in finding solutions to homelessness.

It’s an enormous undertaking. The number of unsheltered homeless individuals has increased 4 percent in the last two years statewide. The lack of shelter can have grave consequences.

During our 2010 Registry Week, we rated the 737 homeless who would speak with us on a vulnerability scale to assess their fatal health risks. Our survey data revealed that 125 men and women were at high risk of dying on the streets without permanent supportive housing.

We started the Ending Homelessness Campaign and by February 2012, we successfully housed those highly vulnerable 125 individuals following the “housing first” model. Initial feedback from caseworkers sounds promising – very low drop rates and very high service participation.

We have now set our sights on housing an additional 125 homeless individuals by the end of this year.

Recently, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan tossed out an estimate on the cost of a homeless person to the American taxpayer.

“The thing we finally figured out is that it’s actually not only better for people, but cheaper to solve homelessness than it is to put a band-aid on it,” Donovan said. “Because at the end of the day, between shelters and emergency rooms and jails, it costs about $40,000 a year for a homeless person to be on the streets.”

That’s an alarming figure.

But what PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact check effort at the Tampa Bay Times, discovered and reported on March 5 was that his figure was low.

Philip Mangano, the former homelessness policy czar under President George W. Bush, estimated that the cost of supporting someone living on the streets costs between $35,000 and $150,000 in public services versus the $13,000 to $25,000 cost of ending that person’s homelessness.

We believe in these results being not only what’s best for the public taxpayer, but also for the chronically homeless who want to return to life off the streets.